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Haiti: Lawyer Newton Louis St Juste called on by US justice as a witness

By EMB and GP

AlterPresse

Translated from the French by Dady Chery for Haiti Chery.

Port-au-Prince, December 4, 2015 — Lawyer Newton Louis St Juste will leave Haiti on Thursday, December 10, 2015 for the United States to respond to an invitation from US justice on various cases, learned the online news agency AlterPresse.

The lawyer will meet with law enforcement authorities and human rights organizations on investigations against the Haitian presidential family, and the ministers and barons of the Tet Kale party in power, for corruption, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

This meeting will also regard actions against the high command of the Haitian National Police (PNH), including Godson Orelus and Vladimir Paraison, for criminal operations of the Brigade for Departmental Operation and Intervention (BOID), together with armed bandits, on September 26 that caused dozens of deaths.

Lawyer Newton Louis St Juste.

About 15 people were also killed under suspicious circumstances, on the evening of Friday, October 16, 2015 in the large slum of Cité Soleil, a municipality north of the capital. According to one version of the events, a strong intervention carried out by BOID, a specialized unit of the Haitian National Police (PNH), was behind this massacre perpetrated in Cité Soleil.

Finally, Newton Louis St Juste will follow up on complaints brought to the United Nations General Secretariat and the US Congress against the Trinidadian Sandra Honoré (Head of the UN force in Haiti), Hillary Clinton (Democratic candidate for the US presidency) and John Kerry (US Secretary of State) with regard to their roles in the recent fraudulent elections in Haiti. Since the publication, on November 14, 2015, of the controversial final results of the August 9 and October 25, 2015 elections, there has been a deterioration of the political climate in Haiti. Intensive anti-government protests continue in the streets of Port-au-Prince to require, among other things, the departure of the team in power and members of the Interim Electoral Council (CEP), after the refusal of the latter to organize an independent commission to evaluate these results.

Former Member of Parliament (MP) Arnel Belizaire is scheduled to testify at a hearing on December 14, 2015 at a Florida federal court, in accordance with an order from Judge Darrin Gayles, with regard to charges of arms trafficking, embezzlement, and criminal conspiracy. These charges had been brought to the Port-au-Prince attorney general against Laurent Salvador Lamothe, Salim Succar and Fresnel Jean Baptiste in complaints dated March 25 and December 14, 2014.

Former MP Arnel Belizaire.

Arms trafficking: Arnel Belizaire convened by US federal court?

By Yvince Hilaire

Le Nouvelliste

Translated from the French by Dady Chery for Haiti Chery.

Port-au-Prince, December 8, 2015 — The ex-MP of Delmas/Tabarre, Arnel Belizaire, announced that he has been invited by a US court to testify in a weapons trafficking case. The former legislator, who was a candidate for senator in the August 9, 2015 parliamentary elections, says that the US federal court summoned him to explain the charges against former officials of the Haitian government, the former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and Salim Sukkar.

“I will go to the court as a witness. I have not brought complaints to foreigners. Since I am the one with the file, they called on me to testify,” tried to explain Arnel Belizaire, to avoid drawing fire from his critics.

“I should leave the country on December 12 and return on December 16, he said, stressing that he has not yet been granted a US visa. But I’ll get it on Tuesday at 2 p.m. If they don’t give it to me, this will not bother me, because I want to stay in Haiti to continue the anti-Tet kale mobilization.”

“If I gave false testimony, surely there will be consequences, said Mr. Belizaire. I will cooperate. In no way will I shirk the summon of a court.”

The ex-MP of Delmas/Tabarre said that he does not fear getting trapped by American justice. He hoped that Port-au-Prince’s Attorney General would also question him on this issue “because it is not possible to accuse all these officials and have Haitian justice not even try to know what it’s about. If it is discovered that I lied, then they should arrest me!”

About Dady Chery

Dr. Dady Chery is a Haitian-born poet, playwright, journalist and scientist. She is the author of the book "We Have Dared to Be Free: Haiti's Struggle Against Occupation." Her broad interests encompass science, culture, and human rights. She writes extensively about Haiti and world issues such as climate change and social justice. Her many contributions to Haitian news include the first proposal that Haiti’s cholera had been imported by the UN, and the first story that described Haiti’s mineral wealth for a popular audience.